Fairfield, Calif. — Michael Duncan was adjusting his front door screen when he recently paused to consider what he wanted from the next governor of California.
Duncan certainly didn’t give much thought to the problem. But when you get to it, he said, the answer is pretty simple: do the basics.
Fighting crime. Fix the roads on the state washboard. Addresses the issue of perennial homelessness. And he will do the better job the governor can and prevent hellish wildfires that have destroyed the wide strip of Southern California.
“I just roll my eyes,” Duncan said. Duncan makes a roundtrip trip of about 120 miles from his home in Fairfield to the work of an environmental analyst in Livermore, knowing exactly where to turn to avoid the worst potholes along the way. “Why does it take so long to do something simple?”
The answer is complicated, but it doesn’t necessarily alleviate California voters who seem uneasy, tormented and sort of seeming, especially when it comes to the state’s current CEO.
Half a dozen candidates are bidding to take over Gavin Newsom. In January 2027, when term restrictions forced the Democrats out of office, I have been pursuing work for over a year that day. But you don’t know it’s going to talk to a wide range of Californians. Many of them had no slight clues as to who was running.
In conversations last week, we were unable to name one candidate in each of the declared candidates in conversations with around 30 voters, from the outskirts of the San Francisco Gulf region to the foot of the Sierra Nevada via Sacramento.
“That guy on Riverside, sheriff,” said Zach House, 31, referring to Republican Chad Bianco. Outside his door, an 8 x 12-foot American flag snapped loudly in the wind as it ran through his Dixon district, the streets named Sombard, Honeybee and Blossom. “Now,” House said, “it’s the only person I know.”
“Mexican-American Gentleman” Brenda Turley volunteered outside the Rosemont Post Office. “Was he not the mayor of Los Angeles?” (He was.)
Certainly, that is a relatively early stage in the governor’s contest. And it’s not as if the events – the intense apocalypse of Southern California, Hurricane Trump – are not consumed quite a bit.
However, if voters appear to pay little attention to the race, they focused on most Duncan foundations, expressing a strong desire for the next governor to be fully invested in the job and not considered merely a placeholder or a springboard to a high office.
“I feel good [Newsom] The 37-year-old Duncan, who described him as a moderate who tends to oppose the party that holds the White House to check his strengths, said:
Michael Duncan hopes that California’s next governor will focus on the basics not running for president.
(Mark Z. Barabak/Los Angeles Times)
That all-in commitment may be something you might want to consider as Kamala Harris is considering a campaign for the governor. And if she runs, you definitely need to deal with it.
The former vice president is currently splitting his time between his New York City apartment and his Brentwood home, and is as low-polarization as she was during the White House campaign where she was truncated.
Tarley, a retired state worker, said she was behind Harris without question if she was running. “Go,” urged the Democrat in his 80s. “Why not? She has experience. Look at her political background. She was [California] Attorney General. She worked in the Senate. ”
A fellow Democrat, Peter Kay, 75, agreed. “She’s better than about 90% of those running for every office in this country,” said Kay, who lives in the city of Swissun. (The retired insurance company had just returned from a car wash and buffed some water spots from his black Tesla, saying this about the company’s CEO.
Conservative sentiment towards Harris was summarised by Gold River dental hygienist Lori Smith (66).
“Ah, God! What a god!” Smith cried out that he had vowed to leave California if Harris was elected governor. “I never could have seen her as president. I dodged a bullet there. I think she needs to leave her little life in some small town.”
Of course, the sky is a vibrant blue, and even the glittering greenery of the hills is not fun for everyone thanks to the blessed Northern California winters.
Some people have understood about excessively strict environmental regulations. Others said more needs to be done to protect fish and wildlife. Some people said more water needs to go to the farmers. Others said that city residents deserve a greater distribution.
Some people complained about the homeless people who command shared public spaces. Amanda Castillo, who lives in her car, sought greater compassion and understanding.
The 26-year-old works full-time in retail at Vacaville and still can’t afford her own place, so she goes to bed at Silver GMC Yukon with his boyfriend and his mother. “I think I’m lucky,” Castillo said.
It was President Trump who hangs in every conversation, like the big, puffy clouds mentioned above.
Most partisans were as different as would be expected about how California should deal with the president and his abused Lamb administration.
“Anyone with a platform should talk,” he fought Trump in court and resisted in every possible way, said Sacramento physician and 42-year-old liberalist, Eunice Kim, who has been suspended outside the hills of El Dorado as her boys, 5 and 8.
Tanya Publs, a 35-year-old home mom, disagreed. Rancho Cordoba Republican voted for Trump, citing the disease Rittany that is plaguing the state. Anyone who works as a governor of California can use all the advice [they] You can get it from the president,” Pubbles said. “Because the situation speaks to itself.”
But not everyone retreated to the expected corner.
Ray Charan, 39, is a Sacramento Democrat working in the Information Technology State and said Trump is president. I can’t agree with all the policies and everything, all the headlines and character things, but if somehow we can work together to improve the nation, I’m everything for it. ”
Ray Charan says his fellow Democrats need to find a way to work with President Trump.
(Mark Z. Barabak/Los Angeles Times)
Trump voter Sean Corey was just as true.
“There’s no combat Trump,” said the 36-year-old Rancho Cordoba Republican, a background investigator and part-time wedding photographer. “If you need federal funds, you want progress, and you have to work with someone on the other side of the table, especially if you’re as aggressive as Trump.
“Get the Venn diagram. Understand what he is for and what you are for,” Corey suggested. “We know what’s in the middle and we’re working hard on it.”
That kind of pragmatism may not summon a great political passion. But practicality seems to be what many Californians are looking for in the next governor.
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